The invention relates to the field of testing a graphical interface allowing a user to interact with a control-command system.
More particularly, the invention is dedicated to tests for a graphical interface that may be found in the railway field.
To date, the methods for testing a graphical interface, seeking to verify that it meets a certain number of specifications, are essentially done manually.
Such a method first consists of determining the specifications of the graphical interface to be tested.
Next, one or several scenarios are defined making it possible to verify that the graphical interface meets a given specification. A scenario groups together a series of events, in particular interaction events by an operator with the graphical interface and reaction events of the graphical interface following an interaction.
Next, a test of the graphical interface is carried out according to a selected scenario. To do this, an operator performs the series of events indicated in the selected scenario. In particular, the operator performs the interaction events (movement of a cursor, action associated with the current position of the cursor, data entered using a keyboard, etc.) and notes the reaction events that follow an interaction (opening of a window, state change of an indicator, evolution of the displayed property, etc.).
According to the scenario, the operator verifies that the reaction event by the graphical interface in fact corresponds to the expected reaction event indicated in the scenario. In the case of a negative verification, i.e., the graphical interface behaves differently than what is expected, the operator fills out a test report.
At the end of a test, optionally repeated a certain number of times, the analysis of the test report makes it possible to identify the malfunctions of the graphical interface relative to what is expected and to correct the graphical interface accordingly.
This approach is very expensive. Indeed, it involves having an operator conduct a test that may be very lengthy, and that oftentimes must be repeated many times to validate an interface with certainty.
The quality of these tests is not guaranteed, since they involve an operator, whose concentration may not be constant throughout the test.
Lastly, this type of test is time-consuming, since an operator can only work effectively for a certain number of hours per day.
Consequently, there is a need to automate such a test method so as to decrease the costs of the step for validating a graphical interface, increase the quality of this validation step, and reduce the time of this validation step.
The invention aims to meet this need.